The Defence of North America

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Technological innovation enables ever-more powerful innovation to emerge on top of previous generations of science and technology, much like sedimentary layers. And as each new substrate of innovation builds on the last, new disruptive technologies take root. Today, a vast creative explosion in commercial applications overlapping robotics, autonomous systems, renewable energy infrastructure, space-based telecommunications and commercial AI is reshaping the global order. As these technology building blocks continue to underwrite the convergence of human and machine intelligence, they are beginning to reshape the fabric of modern militaries as well.

In response to this changing threat environment, DND/CAF has begun a long-term process of integrating frontier technologies into Canadian military operations. This process includes expanding and evolving DND/CAF by incorporating next-generation surveillance aircraft, remotely piloted systems and spacebased assets in the integration of new military platforms (National Defence 2017, 77).

NORAD remains the cornerstone of Canadian national defence, providing both the United States and Canada with a broad mandate on continental security (see Figure 2). As the “Joint Statement on Norad Modernization” (National Defence 2021) explains, a changing security landscape necessitates a shared commitment to modernizing, improving and better integrating the capabilities required for NORAD to maintain persistent awareness in understanding new potential threats to North America.

Canada continues to be a technology leader, but global markets in frontier technologies are shifting. In fact, the pace of innovation itself now demonstrates a rate of change that is not constant but accelerating. Part of the explanation for this acceleration is the capacity of digital technologies to support lateral scaling networks across a global telecommunication infrastructure. Extensive global cooperation among academic researchers, leading commercial enterprises and industry clusters means that advancements in AI and machine learning now diffuse globally.

Figure 2: The NORAD and US Northern Command Strategy

All-domain awareness: This is created through a layered sensing grid (network of all-domain sensors and systems) that provides persistent and complete situational awareness, from subsurface to space and cyberspace.

Information dominance: Effective information dominance systems must ingest, aggregate, process, display and disseminate data quickly and reliably by leveraging the potential of AI and machine learning. The data needs to be shared across domains, across classification, with partners and allies and brought into a cloudbased computing environment to enable decision superiority. Experiments such as the Global Information Dominance series are useful to test and validate pan-domain situational awareness and identify what is possible and what needs to be improved.

Decision superiority: This aims to give senior leaders the options they need for deterrence and deescalation. Efforts should be made to identify early indications and warnings, pattern of life and weak signals. Relying on endgame, kinetic defeat mechanisms is a losing strategy and must be avoided using all levers of influence.

Global integration: Potential adversaries’ actions are global in nature and require global and all-domain awareness, options, actions and effects. Global options, strategies and plans need to be developed to achieve integrated deterrence.

Source: Author.